10 Annoying Flaws That Stop Great Directors Being Perfect

What makes a brilliant film director?

Is it their knowledge of cinema? Their eye for for a great story? Their technique for getting the best of out of an actor? Or maybe it's that flare of creativity audience's lust for whenever they settle down to watch a film for two hours?

Whatever it is, many movie directors have "it". They have the spark, they have the edge and they certainly have the creative control to carve out a piece of their identity on screen that resonates with audiences. If a movie director has a big enough reputation, they can also start to carve out a signature on screen that we as audience members come to recognise about them.

In the same way you can detect Aaron Sorkin dialogue or Roger Deakins cinematography, some directors have a tradition that is noticeable across the board. And while most brilliant qualities are found in excellent directors, there are some who are just at 99% perfection.

There's that little hump that if they just got over, there would be no bad word to say about them. Taste-makers and nitpickers of the movie world will still find something incredulous to say about them of course, but world peace couldn't please them.

In this list are ten talented filmmakers who have just one tiny gripe that they have to reckon with, then they'll be good as the gold on an Oscar.

Yeah that's right, Zack Snyder is a great director!

For all the digs made at Snyder for what he's created for the DCEU, at least you can tell they're his movies. The earthy tones, slow-motion shots might make some audiences roll their eyes, but if you pause his films at any moment during a fight sequence - the shot on screen looks like a gosh-darned painting! A re-watch of 300, Watchmen and even Sucker Punch prove that he has an eye for spectacle on screen - at least some of the time.

Where Snyder falls down is his inability to rein in the madness. Man Of Steel is actually a great character study for Superman for at least two-thirds of the movie, with its final act turning into Godzilla levels of destruction between two demigods. Batman Vs Superman is just as cataclysmic towards the end, and I pray his revised version of Justice League isn't just going to be another round of unwarranted lights, noise and destruction.

Snyder can set up a film brilliantly, and there's a belief that he genuinely has an appreciation for what he's doing. Perhaps what he needs to do is remember he's making a film that's nearly three hours long, and subtlety is a useful tool in that scenario. Otherwise Snyder might go down the very dark route of becoming nothing more than another Michael Bay.